On the 9th of June, the final day of the EYCA Annual Conference, the EYCA Excellence Awards winners were announced. In keeping with tradition, the Awards were given out in six categories, with the winners chosen directly by EYCA member organisations.

Sustainably – Movijovem, Portugal

The first winner of the night was Movijovem, the EYCA member organisation in Portugal and the host of the EYCA Conference. The Portuguese team took home the Award for sustainability for their work to include the National Youth Council of Portugal and the National Youth Associations Federation into the strategic planning of Movijovem’s work and making the youth organisations partners in the organisation. In this way, the input and points of view of young people are always a part of the decision-making process of the organisation and the work it delivers to support young people.

Quality Benefits and Discounts - Association IJD, France

The team behind the Carte Jeunes Européenne won the Award in the Quality Benefits and Discounts category for their amazing work to provide over 10.000 discounts in France, with 8.500 discounts made available in the last six months alone. The discounts are available to cardholders in France and all across the EYCA network.

Youth Mobility and Active Citizenship – AHA, Austria

Taking inspiration from the rewards programme introduced by Young Scot, the EYCA member in Scotland, the AHA team developed AHA Plus - a fantastic recognition scheme for youth volunteering work. In the framework of AHA Plus, young people can collect points for their voluntary work and then exchange those points for rewards such as job shadowing, a meet-and-greet with a celebrity, concert tickets and much more. In addition, AHA Plus helps young people find voluntary work they enjoy and it helps organisations find volunteers to support them in their activities. The programme helps to make volunteering more attractive and rewarding for young people while helping them acquire new skills and experiences.

The AHA Plus programme made AHA Austria the winner of the night in the Youth Mobility and Active Citizenship category.

Knowledge of Young People – CJP, the Netherlands

Vocational schools in the Netherlands do not provide much in the way of cultural education for their students. With its strong cultural focus, CJP – the EYCA member in the Netherlands – conducted a detailed study on how to create a space for cultural education in vocational schools without legal appointments or obligations. The study included consultations with the students themselves to find out more about their lives and identify their interests, teachers and policy makers of vocational schools and cultural organisations eager to offer cultural opportunities for vocational students. The results of the research and best practice examples of cultural organisations and schools working together to create cultural programmes for students were included in a publication. The publication was widely shared with stakeholders in the vocational training field with the aim of generating new ideas and practices across the sector.

This amazing work brought CJP the EYCA Excellence Award for Knowledge of Young People.

Effective PR and Communications – Publiq/BILL, Belgium

For the latest edition of the BILL Awards, the Publiq team worked hard and thought out of the box to promote young artists living in Flanders, Belgium. 10 young artists were nominated and got an exclusive interview which was published and promoted across all BILL communication channels. Nearly 4.000 young people voted and chose the winner together with a jury of experts. Illustrator and writer Carla Swerts was the winner of the BILL Awards and received her prize during the Ultimas 2017 – the official cultural awards of the Flemish government. Her win and the BILL Awards received extensive media coverage in national newspapers.

For their amazing work promoting young talent, the Publiq team received the EYCA Excellence Award for PR and Communications.

Active Contribution to the Association – CJP, the Netherlands

The final Excellence Award went to CJP for their active involvement in and support for EYCA activities throughout the past year. The Award recognised the CJP team’s dedication to the organisation and their willingness to support other EYCA members, sharing their knowledge and expertise to help the European Youth Card have a positive impact on young people’s lives across Europe. This was the second Award of the night for the Dutch organisation.

Congratulations to all winners and nominees!